Written by Old Bluffer 2nd Jun 2005
This public execution has all the trappings that the bored peasants out for a day's entertainment expect. Lots of heckling, thrown refuse, painful torture, dying words and a poignant keepsake clutched in the dying man's fingers.
The official in charge of the execution tries his hardest to make his victim beg for mercy, but Wallace is tough enough to defy his tormentor. Proof enough that a true Scotsman would rather undergo brutal torture than appear weak in front of a wee Englishman.
The famous "Freedom" cry - shame the makeup artists forgot to add sweat to Mel's face though.
What is missing between these screengrabs, is the endless sentimental montage of everyone who has ever met Wallace in his entire life.
C'mon Scotland!
Oh come on that deserved more categories it was so damn herioc when he screams "FREEDOM!".
This death made me sick to my stomach. The imagination runs wild with this one, especially when they start bringing out the hooks and scythes. Knowing that they previously showed a guy getting his head caved in by a flail, and that they refused to show what was going on here, it made it seem all the more gruesome.
The death of wallace was freaken awesome. the only thing that could have made it better is if they had added a little more gore. they could of shown them ripping open his stomach, and possibly a little more blood. Overall I thought it was very well done, and entertaining.
I think the movie was trying to adhere to the old theory that what you don't see is much more effective.
Or to be more cynical about it, it would have been given a higher certificate, greatly affecting its box office sales....
Sometimes I wonder if Mel Gibson looked back at his death scene in Braveheart and was wondering how to make the torture scenes last for an entire film, hense giving us The Passion of the Christ.
Im a muslim and after watching that I was in tears..this might sound dumb but yes I was in tears couldnt believe someone so great with so much pride for his country was killed like that..Sir William is now my role model ever since I watched braveheart,..' Braveheart - Soundtrack - 18 London Symphony Orchestra (James < thats the soundtrack from braveheart..which makes me cry everytime I hear it I think about the hate some ppl have and how good ppl get killed for no reason..all he wanted was freedom and even for that he died the way he did with no care or thought about how bad it might be.
I agree, it is a very poignant scene, although it was ultimately a pointless one in the terms of history.
I think i know the piece of music you are referring to. is it the music playing when he shouts "freedom"? If so, that is a great piece of music.
Why pointless? this track is 7 min...has a little of all the tracks from the movie..which is lovely and it blends in so well too.
Does "dismemberment" cover "decapitation"?
No, so if it is implied that his head is removed we need to add decapitation too.
If he was going to be hung drawn and quartered then that would qualify, but I don't recall any hanging...?
IIRC, on his DVD commentary track, Mel describes how they had to heavily re-edit this sequence. There was a lot more blood and gore on display in his initial cut of the film. But, preview audiences could not take it (alluding to many taking a walk). As well, the scene where the inquisitor slowly reveals the instruments of torture to Wallace, Mel says they had to remove a piece of dialog. Paraphrasing, '...and we will use each one...' It instilled too much dread among the preview audience and some left after that line, and before the fun begins.
That said, I think the sequence is still very powerful and uses the audiences imagination to fill in the unseen actions to great length. And, if you're familiar with the old British form of execution for treason (hung, drawn, and quartered), those images can be quite horrific. In fact, Mel actually describes what really happened to Wallace on that commentary track--the film maker actually toned it down, significantly.
Yeah, I recently watched the DVD with the commentary myself and I'd be interested to see the deleted material, out of morbid curiousity.
I just cant understand how many idiots on this forum actually beleive what they saw in a Hollywood movie!
The guy who wrote Braveheart said its 80% fiction on every chat she he did while promoting the film. Mel Gibson himself said the only reason why he did the movie was because of the stories artistic license and if he would have had to have made the movie historically acurate then he wouldnt have bothered.
Wallace was executed in 1305, five years before Isabella and Henry II were married. Edward III was born in 1312, seven years after Wallace's death. In fact, Isabella was only 11 years old when Wallace died. If Wallace did screw her, like suggested in the movie, then that would make him a paedophile which Im sure is a fine icon for you all to look up to! Also the sweet little woman depicted in the movie is quite unlike the actual Isabella, called the "She- wolf of France," who personally murdered her husband with a hot poker.
Robert The Bruce couldn't have "betrayed" Wallace because he and Wallace actually were fighting on opposite sides, since Wallace supported John Balliol as king of Scotland instead of Bruce.
Wallace invaded north eastern England, killing men, women, and children as he went
raping and looting were a part of his strategy to bring fear to those in his way.
So the next time you go see a great movie thats based very very loosely around some historic event or character, just do some research before you go blubbering into your kleenex.
Read these:
[www.gaddgedlar.com]
[www.highlanderweb.co.uk]
[www.celticfringe.net]
[ourworld.compuserve.com]
or just go to your local library instead of sitting on your fat butts stuffing your faces with pocorn!
Its people like you that give all of us a bad name throughout the world, this is why Americans are classed as the stupidest most uncultured people on earth.
Fair points, but bear in mind that you really shouldn't speak in generalities - I'm British, as is Old Bluffer. Likewise, I don't think Americans are "the stupidest, most uncultured people on earth" since I'm pretty sure you'll find those in every country, not to mention that's very rude and stereotyping.
Matt, who has never seen Braveheart.
Historically inaccurate or not, I still consider Braveheart to be a great film, and I like how Gibson's Wallace really, really, reeeeeally wants to avoid any trouble until the English just push him too far. He's good at that sort of role (see The Patriot, too, for example, although unlike Braveheart I can't say I like that movie very much).
As to why I dislike The Patriot, well, I'm unsure. It's got most if not all of the same elements Braveheart does (including a cool villain; Colonel Tavington and Edward the Longshanks are awesome love-to-hate-'em baddies), but there's just this weird undercurrent of smugness about it, unlike in Braveheart in which I detect no such smugness (well, except from Longshanks, but that's understandable given that he's the heavy).